Abner Smith Lipscomb (February 10, 1789, in

Abbeville District Abbeville County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 24,295. Its county seat is Abbeville. It is the first county (or county equivalent) in the United States alphabetically. Abbevi ...

, South Carolina – December 8, 1856, in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, Texas) was an American and

Texan Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

lawyer and judge. He was also appointed Secretary of State for the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...

under the administration of President Mirabeau B. Lamar. Lipscomb studied law in the office of

John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He ...

and passed the bar in 1810. In 1811, he began practice in St. Stephens, Alabama (then part of the

Mississippi Territory The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 7, 1798, until December 10, 1817, when the western half of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Mississippi. T ...

.) He served in the Alabama territorial legislature in 1818 and when Alabama became a state in 1819, he then became a circuit judge, which automatically made him a justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. When chief justice Clement Clay of the

Alabama Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is house ...

resigned in 1823, Lipscomb was chosen to be the next chief justice. The court was reorganized in 1832; Lipscomb continued as chief justice of the court, where he served until 1835. Lipscomb served a term in the Alabama state legislature in 1838. He married on April 13, 1813, at St. Stephens to Elizabeth Gaines, sister of Ann Lawrence Gaines who married their cousin, Col.

George Strother Gaines George Strother Gaines (1 May 1784 – 21 January 1873) was a federal Indian agent in the Mississippi Territory (today's Alabama and Mississippi). He began as the US Indian agent to the Choctaw, explored the country west of the Mississippi R ...

. Col. Gaines' nephew, Hon. Francis Strother Lyon began the study of law while working for Abner Smith Lipscomb in his office in St. Stephens. In 1839 Lipscomb moved to the

and established a law practice in

Brenham Brenham ( ) is a city in east-central Texas in Washington County, United States, with a population of 17,369 according to the 2020 U.S. census. It is the county seat of Washington County. Washington County is known as the "Birthplace of Texas, ...

. He was Secretary of State under President Lamar from January 31, 1840, to December 13, 1840. Lipscomb was a member of the

Convention of 1845 Convention may refer to: * Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct ** Treaty, an agreement in international law * Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in a ...

; in 1845, he also served on a committee that wrote a report on the Texas General Land Office. He was appointed an associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court in 1846 by Governor James Pinckney Henderson. As he was elected in 1851 and re-elected in 1856, he continued in this post until November 1856. He taught Law courses at Baylor University from 1849 to 1856. Lipscomb died in Austin, Texas and was buried in the State Cemetery. Lipscomb County, Texas and its county seat of Lipscomb, Texas, are named in honor of him. The remainder of the Lipscomb Family lives in Houston Texas, the patriarch of the Lipscomb clan, Charles Marty Lipscomb, lives in Edinburg Texas with his wife JP Lipscomb and his three children.

References

Abner S. Lipscomb, Second Chief Justice
web page at the Alabama Department of Archives & History.

bio at the Baylor University law school web page.
Lipscomb, Abner Smith
entry in the ''

Handbook of Texas Online The ''Handbook of Texas'' is a comprehensive encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular ...

'' at the University of Texas at Austin. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipscomb, Abner Smith 1789 births 1856 deaths 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American judges Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of Alabama Justices of the Supreme Court of Alabama Members of the Alabama Territorial Legislature People from Abbeville County, South Carolina People from Austin, Texas Secretaries of State of Texas